First, let’s start with the one thing every student of Dutch struggles with: Dutch is hard to pronounce. All those strange sounds, it is verschrikkelijk!

Consonants like ch, sch, ng and nk are unfamiliar in most languages and because you can combine nouns in Dutch, you end up with words like: Slechtstschrijvend (“worst-writing”) and angstschreeuw (cry of fear). Very difficult to pronounce.

And it’s not just the consonants. The vowels also make it a lot more difficult to pronounce the words correctly. Some sounds like ui or eu are new to people who are learning Dutch. To produce those sounds your mouth has to move in ways it has never done before. That’s why it’s really difficult to master these sounds at a later age.

To make it even more difficult, words that have their origin in other languages sometimes keep their original sound. For example detail, laptop, dossier and computeren. I made a series of pronunciation lessons to help you with that.

The next thing is that the word order in Dutch is known for being confusing. Simple sentences can just be made with subject-verb-object, much like in other languages. But one small word can turn the sentence upside down. Sorry, ik ben te laat > Sorry dat ik te laat ben. This is probably something that will torture you during your time learning Dutch. Maybe you are thinking … well, let’s skip that part of grammar. You can’t!

Sneakers Sneakers Women's In Glitter Burgundy Valentino Word order is extremely important in the Dutch language! It determines the function of each word in the sentence. You can tell from the word order if the sentence is a question or a statement, if something is the subject or the object, whether certain information is important or not, whether it is part of the main clause or the subclause. But don’t worry… in my #dutchgrammar course, I explain it all, step-by-step… about the word order of questions and subclauses, and the inversion word order.

All those irregular forms and exceptions make it difficult to learn

The Dutch language has many irregular verbs. There are 200 irregular verbs with all sorts of different irregularities, and it’s almost impossible to find a system. You say kopen (to buy)– ik kocht – ik heb gekocht, but then lopen (to walk) – ik liep – ik heb gelopen. There are no grammar rules for these verbs. You’ll just have to learn them by heart and remember them.

That brings me to number 4 of this list, remembering whether a word is a de or het word and all the consequences. Native Dutch speakers struggle with this too when they speak. And like the irregular forms and the exceptions it’s just something you have hear, read and memorize.

Dutch people want to speak English with you

Many Dutch people, especially in Amsterdam, switch to English as soon as they hear that you’re not a native Dutch speaker. Dutch people see themselves as international and love to show their English skills. However, speaking and practising is essential in learning the Dutch language. You can always try and ask Wilt u Nederlands praten, alstublieft?

Sneakers In Burgundy Valentino Sneakers Glitter Women'sA different Dutch accent in every region

Het Drents, Brabants, Maastrichts, just three examples of different accents, ‘Fries’ is even an official language. In the relatively small area of the Netherlands there are more then 20 accents. If an Amsterdammer ends up in a conversation with a real ‘Fries’ speaking person (or a Maastrichter with a Drent for that matter), they both may have a hard time understanding each other.

Is it hard for an American to learn Dutch?

Often I get people from the United States asking me if it’s hard to learn? Dutch is a member of the same family tree as English and there are some similarites for example in word order (SVO) and vocabulary (tomaat =tomato, huis = house, blauw = blue), but there are still a lot of differences and there’s a wide range of vocabulary you need to learn. In fact, the ‘Valentino Burgundy Sneakers In Women's Sneakers Glitter Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal’ (Dictionary of the Dutch Language) is the largest in the world.

You learned the grammar rules, studied the most important words and mastered the key phrases, you’re confident enough to start your first conversation and then you hear…. ‘Hoest?’…

The Dutch swallow sounds and small words when they speak. If you hear ‘Thangtervanaf’, they mean Het hangt ervan af (It depends). It doesn’t make it any easier taking your first steps in Dutch.

Dutch people add small words

Ik zal nou toch nog maar wel eens even kijken. All these small words don’t contain a fixed meaning, you can look them up in the dictionary, but that won’t help you. But they each have a function in the sentence. These words can make it more personal, or they can strengthen or weaken the message.

Are you still interested in learning Dutch after what you’ve just read? Well, then I am here for you! On my website noir cam Georgia Vit Rose Colery noir vtBw6wZqx you will find a number of online courses that can help you further. I see at as my main task, to make things easy for you… so that you can learn even the most difficult parts of the Dutch language!

Talen te leren is moelijk. Unless for me. Ik ben 49 jaar oud and to learn languages is not my best skill. My english is not perfect even I took a cursus in my country many years ago and have practiced it often with my partner the last year. But love is powerful.

Burgundy Sneakers In Valentino Sneakers Women's Glitter I decided change my life to come Nederland and be here with my blue prince. I am journalist and teacher also. The dutch grammar structure makes me crazy, because my mother tongue is Spanish. Altough, as ballet dancer ( I was) I know if you be in focus and practice every day the skills will be development. I am grateful because dutch grammar is helping me a lot to understand why the dutch people speaks different than me. Your english is clear so I can understandi it perfect. I started Dutch Grammar 20 days ago and I have learned much more than the last year with Naar Nederland Cursus.

Now I get the answers about many questions. Waarom is nieuw jaar niet nieuwe jaar (with extra e, voorbeeld)? Nu, begrijp ik het

Before I asked my partner and he tried to give me the answers but usually he can not. Simply, for them is that because it is.

In Sneakers Sneakers Valentino Burgundy Women's Glitter I have asked people in the stores and on the streets of Rotterdam who were Dutch Nationals… if they thought Dutch for American was more difficult to learn than English for a Dutch Person. Most Always – they said Dutch leaning for Americans was harder than English for Dutch. I am married to a Dutch lady and have been trying off and on for 12 yrs now to grasp Dutch. I may be at a 5 yr old level??.Becoming a brain surgeon would be easier – IMHO…LOL!!

At least your article made me smile, because I can see the difficulties you must experience. Even though I am Afrikaans speaking and therefore a lot of those problems will not be as huge for me, even Afrikaans speakers find it not so easy to understand Dutch.

Hoi, Bart! I’m Russian and now I’m learning English and Dutch. When I started to learn Dutch all my Dutch and Belgian friends told me that that Dutch is very difficult for foreigners. But from the first steps, I understood that Dutch is much easier for me than English. I even had strange feeling that I knew this language before. I tried to analyze this feeling, why it is so. And now I see more and more in common between Dutch and Russian. Much more, than between English and Russian. And I really enjoy Dutch. But – yes, it’s still very difficult for me to understand Dutch-speaking. And all these small words also are rather a difficult topic, but here I see again that in Russian we also use a lot of such words, I just need to analyze this topic a bit more. Thank you very much for all your wonderful lessons! I’m sure that with your help I will know Dutch well!

Bart I will add another point. As an Englishman, for example, I say ‘nijmegen ‘, sounding the ‘en’ at the end of the word. A Dutch person says ‘ nijmeger’ and this applies to many Dutch words. This, in my view, is lazy, and confused me even more!

I find the same thing as Howard, but think this will get better with practice. I am currently learning Spanish too and am having the same experience there. Hardest bit for me is all the “tch nog maar we eens” as this cannot really be taught.

Hi Bart Dutch is quite reasonable to learn. I am English and my partner is Dutch.Sneakers In Glitter Sneakers Valentino Burgundy Women's However, I find it impossible to understand when Dutch is spoken to me at normal conversation speed by a dutch person. Additionally, when I listen to Dutch being spoken at normal speed when the Dutch speak together, then, on the whole, it’s just noise without understanding except for a few phrases

It is not a question of being difficult or easy. All languages are difficult and easy at the same time. Difficult because at the beginning they represent something new, that the learner is not familiar with, and easy because when the learner arrives to the point to master them (“de les maîtriser” comme on dit en français) everything arrives “in one go” and the learner can communicate in the same way that the natives are doing. The most important point in my opinion, is the time. Every language needs time (average 3-5 years in order to arrive in a good intermediate level, B2 according to the new European terminology) and most of the learners are in a hurry and try to speed their study up because psychologically they feel that they will achieve better results. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG. They must take their time and the modern technology offers an important aid to them with the amount of lessons, texts and other information through the Internet and if all these will be used properly the results will be amazing. Don’t forget: “Es geht mit der Zeit (Everything goes with time”. This is a wise German expression that everyone who wants to learn a new language (or something new, in general) should have in his mind.

Thank you Bart! I joined your webinars, and I’m currently watching all the videos of your YouTube channel. If in the future I’ll need another Ditch course, I’ll surely sign up one of your courses. Fijne dag!